Sakura: More Than You Think You Are
by Virgo Writer
Summary: The otherside of the story. Sakura is a Pokemon trainer who just can't seem to rid herself of the cute, but pesky, Syaoran Li. Everything is perfect, so why can't she rid the feeling that she's not at all where she's supposed to be? S&S. DISCONTINUED.
1. Not All Who Wander Are Lost

First I better start by apologising for not putting this up sooner but it totally isn't my fault - I guess I thought there would be more interest in this than there was and the lack of interest in it spoiled my interest in it so in return I sort of just held the subsequent chapters hostage until I felt sorry enough for anyone who was interested to put the rest up. I suspect part of the problem is that it is in crossovers so its unlikely anyone will stumble across it randomly, but I couldn't fairly put it into one or the other unless I put them up as two separate stories (which I can't do due to possible future plot but I haven't really decided on that point).

Anyways, I know I'm going to repeat this again at the end of the chapter but please review because its the only way I know whether or not to continue. Thanks to all that reviewed and I'm sure that this is what many of you were hanging out for - when Sakura meets Syaoran . . . This chapter is very long so you better all appreciate it dammit (as you can see the rating is for my own personal cursing and nothing else).

DISCLAIMER - Virgo Writer is penniless student who writes fanfiction as a hobby, I'll let you come to your own conclusions . . .

* * *

More Than You Think You Are – Not All Who Wander Are Lost

She could feel the hard grey walls caving in on her.

They were so dark, so strong. She felt as though she would be trapped within them forever, isolated from the outside world and simply left to die. She felt so utterly alone.

"Don't worry Sakura," a smooth masculine voice told her softly, dispelling her fears. "We'll get through this together."

And suddenly she felt less alone.

Sakura opened her tear filled emerald green eyes only to meet a pair of awe struck amber ones filled with concern for her and eyes for her alone. She was suddenly reminded of how much nicer her name sounded when coming from his silky lips that she longed to kiss for so long.

Her eyes darted over him taking in every breath taking sight starting with the wind tossed chocolate coloured messy locks that remained in the same state no matter how many times a comb was run through it. Next it was those piercing amber orbs that seemed to be able to see into her very being, her soul. Those eyes would engulf her into a state of comatose that she just knew she could stay in forever and be perfectly content.

Her eyes moved down to his lips, the ones she would pray every night to kami-sama to feel against her own. Those lips that haunted her dreams day and night, those lips that would stop her heart completely when they lifted into one of his rare, but breath taking smiles.

Her eyes studied his muscular physique from years of training, the perfectly developed muscles and the strong green aura reaching out to her own pink, before they finally returned to the deep amber eyes that it all began with once again becoming lost into their fiery depths.

"Trust me," he added in a soft whisper as he reached out and gently wiped away her tears as best he could.

"Of course I trust you Syaoran," she replied to him. "I'm just scared. I don't think I'm strong enough. I don't think I can win this."

"Well I do Sakura," Syaoran told her his voice and eyes filled with the truest form of sincerity. "I believe in you."

"Syaoran I . . ." she started suddenly finding herself at a loss for words.

Syaoran was right there, standing right in front of her, looking straight into the emerald depths of her eyes filled with emotions she longed to define and all she could do was stand there as the world crumbled away beneath her feet.

_'Wait,'_ she thought doing a double take as the ground literally was crumbling away beneath her.

"Sakura!" she heard Syaoran call as she disappeared into that deep dark abyss of her mind.

"Sakura!" her father yelled in her ear as he shook her roughly as he had been trying to wake her for the last half hour. "You're late sweetheart."

"Hooeee!!!" Sakura exclaimed suddenly very awake. "I'm late for school again, Ms. Anderson's going to kill me."

"You're not late for school," Fujitaka replied chuckling at his clueless daughter.

"I'm not!" she said angrily before deciding not to even bother. She fell back down to her bed before resuming her sleeping regime.

"Stupid, baka tou-san waking me up early for no reason," she muttered angrily to herself as she tried to get back to sleep.

"Mou Sakura, have you forgotten what day it is already?" Fujitaka asked skeptically. "Today is your thriteenth birthday, the day most people who've been dreaming of being a Pokemon Master since they could talk usually start their journey. And seeing as I'm on the topic anyway the time is five minutes to ten, the time most people in the fore mentioned category would be down at Professor Mizuki's lab trying to pass their exam."

"HHHHOOOOEEEE!!!!!" Sakura screamed again, louder and longer this time as she rushed past him in a fury of clothes, books and pokegear.

"Hmmmmmm, thirty five seconds," he said thoughtfully glancing at his watch, "must be losing my touch."

"Bye Otou-san," she called as she raced out the door of her Pallet home and to the Mizuki Reservation.

Pallet, her hometown, wasn't particularly large compared to a lot of the places surrounding it. It was lucky to have even a hundredth of the population the big city's like Cerulean and Viridian had. It seemed the only reason Pallet was even on the map was because of Professor Mizuki, the leading professor in Pokemon Science.

Mizuki's labs were situated near the outskirts of Pallet and probably took up most of the land in the small town. It was filled with thousands – maybe even millions – of Pokemon most of, which belonged to the Pallet trainers already on their journey's.

Sakura wanted to be one of them. She wanted to be the 'Worlds Greatest Pokemon Master' and really put Pallet Town on the map for good.

She panted as she finally made it over the huge hill leading towards the towering white buildings. She made a memo to herself that she would really have to start cutting back on the dingdongs if she wanted to make her way to Indigo and back alive.

"Ah, Sakura, you finally made it," a women with long red-brown hair and eyes like lions said as the door swung open before Sakura even had the chance to knock. Sometimes the professor's intuition really scared her.

"I had a feeling you'd be late so I held up the exam," Mizuki continued in her usual placid, all-knowing, tone of voice as she led Sakura inside. "You're my best student, if you don't pass then there is certainly no hope for the rest of them."

"Thank you for the encouragement Professor Mizuki," Sakura replied bowing from both respect and modesty.

Mizuki nodded in response. "Come now," she insisted. "You must begin."

Sakura did as she was told and took a seat with many of her fellow classmates in the blank looking room situated near the labs entrance.

"The exam begins . . . now!"

For three prolonged and painful hours Sakura scribbled back and forth across what seemed like over a thousand pages filling in the spaces where necessary. By the time it was finally over her hands felt like they were on fire.

And now here she was about two hours after that walking the road to Veridian with her first ever Pokemon.

It was a small flying/magic type Pokemon named Kero who would evolve to Ceroberous at level 52 with the aid of the sun stone. Kero was no bigger than a foot or so and had beautiful golden fur and pure white feathery wings.

It seemed the only problem with Kero was his attitude.

"C'mon Kero-chan," Sakura begged now resorting to dragging poor little Kero across the ground by string held by her dad's old rubber gardening gloves.

She had learnt early on not to mess with Kero or to risk getting to close. It seemed this particular Kero liked to show off with some of its electrical magic attacks when he was angry – which by the way was practically all the time. It really was a good thing that Sakura was shock resistant.

Kero stood firm holding its angry stance despite its size and Sakura's attempt to pull him further.

"Fine," she sighed taking off the gloves and undoing the rope from her partner's neck. "Is that better now?" she asked.

Kero just turned his nose up at her refusing to make any contact with this human. He was still angry at that damn professor for trapping him in that Pokeball until somebody decided to take him away from those labs. He just wished he hadn't been stuck with her of all people.

Theoretically, the girl knew just about everything she needed to know to get her trainers licence and more. The problem was that practically speaking, she was about as inexperienced as an exeggutor in a Frisbee throwing contest (A/N: cos they don't have any arms).

She didn't know what she was supposed to do with her Pokemon, only what she had learnt from that silly professor and from watching the matches on TV. Sure they'd been taught the basics on what to do if your Pokemon was poisoned and simple attack strategies and Sakura had passed that with flying colours, but when it came to the real nitty gritty, the stuff that was really important, they were all novices.

But what did he expect. It wasn't like they were going to give him to an experienced trainer, experienced trainers didn't need to be given Pokemon – they caught their own. He was obviously a starter Pokemon and thus he was given to a starter trainer.

"I know Kero," Sakura said cheerfully as if she had just come up with the greatest thing since sliced bread. "Why don't we stop to eat?"

Kero shrugged his small shoulders and went to sit up in a tree.

Sakura sighed.

This totally wasn't what she expected her journey to be like.

She thought she would be on the road with a Charmander, or a Bulbasaur or even maybe a Squirtle talking cheerfully to one another and declaring that they would be the best of friend's right to the end. Being zapped wasn't exactly on the program for her first day on the road to being the worlds greatest Pokemon Master, actually it was probably the last thing she had expected to happen.

Again she sighed as she slouched lazily at the bottom of the tree Kero had perched himself in and threw her backpack to the side. Maybe she would just have a nap for a bit, today really had been a long day with everything that happened.

She really wished that Professor Mizuki would schedule these things later but then she couldn't see that happening in a future where she would benefit from it.

So with those thoughts Sakura closed her eyes and tried to escape from the world if only for a few moments rest. That was of course until she heard a strange rustling noise coming from beside her.

She slowly opened one eye and cautiously looked to the side so as not to frighten whatever was making the strange noise only to find to her pleasure and surprise a Pokemon!

Sakura's eyes widened in astonishment as she looked the violet creature up and down. It was the first wild Pokemon she had seen since her father found that stray sunflora settling itself into her mom's old flower beds, but it wasn't nearly as cool as this.

So she did the same thing any inexperienced new Pokemon trainer would do. She whipped out her handy dandy note- I mean Pokedex out of her pocket and aimed it at the cute purple Pokemon in awe.

"Rattatta, a forest Pokemon," her Pokedex spoke in its familiar computer generated voice. "It likes cheese, nuts, fruits and berries."

"Cool!" Sakura cooed in an excited whisper as she watched the creature almost as if she was afraid she might break the being if she spoke too loud.

"It also comes out into fields," Dexter added almost as a rather fitting after thought, "to steal food from STUPID trainers."

"Hoe," Sakura sighed despondently as she slumped to the ground beside the tree.

Rattatta paused to look at her for a second before continuing to riffle uncaringly through her bag for anything considered edible and lets face it, those rubber gloves were looking mighty tasty right about now.

Kero laughed haughtily from up in the tree not caring that he was laughing at his own STUPID trainer and that he would be stuck with said trainer for what could quite possibly be the rest of his life.

But Sakura wasn't kept down for long. I suppose that was just one of her better traits; she was the sort of person that would always get back on the horse even if it meant further embarrassment, as the case usually was.

"That's a Pokemon," she exclaimed excitedly as Kero rolled his eyes, as it truly was the most obvious thing. "And I'm a Pokemon Trainer. And Pokemon Trainers catch Pokemon."

Again Kero rolled his small charcoal eyes, as Sakura's own emerald green sparkled excitedly at her great insight into life itself.

"Go get 'em Kero," she commanded pointing at the Rattatta with the same look on her face.

Kero looked at her for a few seconds before doing what came naturally. He carefully got down the tree and laughed so hard he ended up on the floor clutching his stomach.

_'Silly humans,'_ he thought to himself. _'I wonder if they're all like this or if mine is just exceptionally stupid.'_

"Fine then," Sakura growled. "I'll do it myself. Pokeball go."

And with that she threw her red and white Pokeball at the Rattatta catching him in one easy scoop. For a few seconds all was silent as the ball bounced around but then the Rattatta escaped giving Sakura one last glare before being on its way.

Kero began to laugh again and was very thankful he had decided to get out of the tree. It would have been a very painful fall otherwise.

It was then Dexter spoke up interrupting Kero's laughter.

"To capture a Pokemon you usually have your own Pokemon battle it," Dexter explained almost sarcastically.

"Some help you are," she muttered to both Kero and the Pokedex. Neither seemed to be doing her any good at the moment and she had no idea how she was going to deal.

"Hey you! Come back here!" she growled angrily at the creature who had stolen her lunch. "Kero," she whinned seeing as her first attempts hadn't worked, "attack it."

"Ker-ro," he chuckled to himself as he made his way back up into the tree where he could watch the whole thing without being harmed.

"Go ahead, laugh, see if I care," Sakura muttered as she grabbed as stone off the ground and threw it in the direction she presumed the Rattatta was in. She knew it wasn't the brightest idea, actually it was probably the dumbest idea she had come up with to date, but I guess she was just so angry that it was the only thing she could think of to do.

Luckily, she missed the poor misled Rattatta. Unluckily, she hit something else.

A cry of pain echoed through the grassy plains as some random Pokemon was hit with a dangerously low flying rock thanks to our 'hero'.

"That's not good is it?" she asked cautiously as she looked towards her partner for help.

The cute golden Pokemon simply shook his head at her as he kindly held back a few giggles.

The currently unknown Pokemon squawked again louder than before as it made its way into the air. It glared at Sakura with black eyes and smirked with its long beak as its jagged feathers ruffled in the wind. Sakura gulped nervously.

"Most Pokemon are placid unless provoked," the Pokedex stated as it locked onto the tall and powerful looking Pokemon that was heading rapidly towards them. "An exception to this would be the spearrow which has a terrible temper, it is very wild and will sometimes attack other Pokemon and humans."

"Obviously," Sakura muttered as the Spearrow grazed past her several times barely missing it's mark.

But then dexter wasn't finished. "Wild Pokemon are often jealous of trained Pokemon and will try to attack them out of this resentment." And that was when Spearrow noticed Kero sitting in the branch above Sakura's head, still barely holding back giggles at the state his master was getting herself into.

Spearrow's evil smirk widened as he narrowed his onyx coloured eyes on Kero with an almost shameless glee. He diverted his attention from getting back at Sakura for throwing that rock at him to a new method of torture.

He swooped and dived from all angles. It was only thanks to his agility and quick attacks that Kero was able to miss the majority of Spearows attacks, but that didn't mean he was completely immune.

"Hey, stop that!" Sakura cried out seeing her _only_ Pokemon hit by one of Spearows most devastating attacks. "It's me you're after, leave Kero alone."

Spearrow just smiled that evil smirk of his once again and continued to attack poor Kero with all its might. It may have been Sakura who had thrown the rock, but Kero was a far more interesting target.

"Kero, get in your pokeball," she commanded desperately. Neither Pokemon seemed to be listening to her.

It was hopeless. She was supposed to be a Pokemon trainer, and she couldn't even get her own Pokemon to listen to her, let alone gain control over wild ones. She was useless, how was she ever going to reach her dream at this rate?

Kero just sent her a quick glare and ran off into the field. He hated pokeballs. The only thing he reckoned he despised more than pokeballs were Spearrow and that was pretty understandable right now.

He refused to be confined to a pokeball, he would find his own way out of this, he didn't need her help or anyone else's.

So Kero ran. He ran away from his inexperienced trainer. He ran away from the evil Spearrow that ran after him. He ran away from everything he hated about this world.

Occasionally he would send some kind of attack at Spearrow, but it all seemed almost futile, after all, he had wasted all of his good attacks on Sakura earlier that day. He also noticed that she was running after him, keeping surprisingly good pace.

Obviously, one of the attacks must have hit Spearrow, because suddenly the evil little bird creature made the most dreadful noise either one of them had ever heard. Sadly, it wasn't a cry of pain, as most would presume; this was something not all that dissimilar to a cry of war.

Both Sakura and Kero stopped as the saw the Pokemon drift backwards. They stared as a huge dark cloud began to form in the distance, swiftly moving towards them echoing Spearrows cry. They continued to stare as the cloud became clearer, as it became obvious that the cloud was not in fact a cloud, but a huge angry horde of Spearrow.

"Get in your Pokéball Kero," Sakura commanded firmly not taking her eyes off the approaching gang.

Kero looked at her for a second noticing an air about her he had never noticed in any human before, but he quickly shook it off and took to the air where he knew he could gain more speed. Sakura was on his heals from the word go; and the Spearrow (not to mention a few rather dangerous looking Fearrow) were right behind them.

The Spearrow pecked at them both mercilessly, especially Kero whom they had decided was responsible for this dreadful attack against their fellow Spearrow. It quickly escalated to the point where Kero was unable to fly and forced to run along side Sakura as fast as his tiny little legs would take him.

They were persistent though. Despite the fact that Kero was lower to the ground, they continued to attack him to their hearts content.

Sakura clenched her jaw in determination and made up her mind. In spite of Kero's annoyance, she scooped him up into her arms and cradled him against her body, protecting him from the harm surrounding him.

_'I need a plan,'_ Sakura thought to herself hopelessly as she took a look at the injured Pokemon begrudgingly taking shelter in her arms.

Her eyes shifted across the lush green meadows to her left, then on to the steep rolling hills ahead and the distant memories of the town behind her until something to the right of her caught her eye.

It was the most beautiful thing Sakura had ever seen in her life (no, not Syaoran, yet). It was an amazing mass of emerald green leaves and mahogany trunks and she didn't think she had ever been so thankful to see a tree in her life.

You see, even someone as dense as Sakura knows that it's a lot harder for birds like Spearrow and Fearrow to fly through a forest, especially one as dense as this. Now she had a plan and with any luck it may just save their lives.

So without any more thought to it, Sakura veered off to the right, taking the gang of Spearrow by surprise for a few seconds. To think that hadn't even been a part of her master plan; she hadn't accounted for Spearrows' stupidity.

She rushed towards the forest with as much speed and determination as she could muster. She wasn't going to let her first Pokemon die because of her own stupid little mistake because then that would mean that Meiling was right, that she was really the silly little wannabe trainer that Meiling made her out to be.

This just made her run faster.

Random Spearrow and Fearrow crashed into trees either side of her, some even managing to keep up for a relative amount of time. But then, like I said before, Spearrow are not exactly the sharpest crayons in the box and eventually this fact caught up with them.

Finally, completely exhausted, Sakura stopped running happy to find that there was no one but herself and Kero left in the forest. She dropped to the forest floor tiredly resting against a tree trunk just happy to be alive.

_'Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes,'_ she thought to herself drowsily as her thoughts became cloudy and she lost all control of her consciousness.

"Can you even believe them?" a boy asked his trusted companion fervently who shurged in response. "I mean, who the hell do they even think they are?"

The Pokemon, a well trained and kept Magnemite, buzzed and beeped excitedly in agreement with its master as they walked through a familiar forest along side a sea green mountain bike.

It was all their fault really, just as master said it was (A/N: Is anyone else getting scary Gollum de ja vu right about now?). Not that either of them minded.

For about as long as the boy and his dutiful Pokemon could remember, all they had wanted to do was get away from that awful place and its awful inhabitants. He had felt trapped within its sturdy walls, almost as if it were a prison rather than the home it was fabled to be.

He felt as though everyone had constantly watched his every move, just waiting for him to fail so they could laugh and jeer in response. Waiting for him to prove them all right, to show he couldn't do it, that he was as useless as they all believed him to be.

God, he hated it there. Everybody treated him like crap, as if he wasn't good enough to even be considered in the same sentence as them. It was as if they didn't think he was worthy of them; as if their mere presence was some gift they had bestowed upon him; their most unworthy attendant.

That was why he had left. At least it was one of the reasons he had left. He wanted to prove them all wrong, to prove that he could make it on his own.

He was going to be the best damn Electric Master there ever was and ever will be. And he was going to do it without them and their damn self-righteous, hollier-than-thou help if you could even call it that.

"We'll show them, won't we Magnum?" he asked rhetorically to his friend, companion and most trusted Pokemon. "Just you, me and 3M. We'll be the best, that's for sure and they'll all regret the day they messed with . . ."

He was cut off mid-speech by a sound – other than that of his own voice – interrupting the stillness of the forest. He eyed his surroundings cautiously and listened for the sound to come again but all was silent until the rustle of a nearby bush caught his attention.

"Look Magnum, it's a Pokemon," he smiled excitedly. "C'mon let's catch it."

For a moment the Magnemite looked almost depressed as it let out a sole 'mag' but the boy quickly consoled it. "Aw, don't be like that Mag," he said thoughtfully. "You can't expect me to make it through a journey with just you and 3M by my side. I'm going to need at least six Pokemon, but I promise you when we get to that final it will be us three all the way."

Magnum seemed to perk up at that and started charging itself for whatever attack the boy commanded.

The boy's smile widened, so much so that it seemed to burn through his amber eyes with an intense energy unlike any other known to man. "Ok Magnum, let's get ready for a thundershock."

Meanwhile . . . Sakura stirred awoken by a near by commotion.

She opened her eyes slowly to the unfamiliar scenery as she searched her mind for the reasons that got her here but her thoughts were quickly interrupted by a single word reaching her ears. Pokemon.

Caught by this one word, she began to listen intently to the seemingly one-sided conversation taking place just beyond her little bush.

"Ok Magnum, let's get ready for a thundershock."

"Hoe!" she muttered excitedly at the sound of the electric attack. She couldn't believe it, she was about to witness a real live Pokemon battle, and only on her first day of training. The kids back home in Pallet were going to be so jealous when they heard about this.

"Did you hear that?" the same voice asked, his excitement growing just as Sakura's was. Whatever he was talking to responded with a delighted 'mag'. "It's got to be a Ho-oh. You better make that a thunder wave, Magnum."

_'Oh my gosh. A Ho-oh. That's so cool!'_ she thought infectiously. _'What's a Ho-oh?'_

Sakura just decided to shrug her shoulders and smiled to herself. She began to get up into a position where she could watch the battle take place. She'd never seen a real Pokemon battle before, well other than the one that one time she had seen Meilin battle but then that one didn't really count because Meilin was just a stupid little pooh brain anyway.

"You ready Magnum?" he asked before giving the command. "Ok, go!"

Sakura could feel herself tingling all over with excitement. Actually, on second thoughts that could have just been the thousand or so volts of electricity that had just been pumped into her by an unwitting Pokemon because that sad fact was, there was no Ho-oh and some over eager trainer had managed to mistake her for the legendary bird.

"I think we got it Magnum!" he cried out excitedly. "Pokeball go!"

"Wait! I'm not a Pokemon!" Sakura tried to call out but it was already too late. Before she could even try to get the words out she was struck by a Pokeball and everything suddenly went black.

"Are you ok?" asked a sweet voice full of concern as she slowly drifted back to consciousness.

Her eyes fluttered open anxiously only to be met by a pair of the most awe striking amber eyes that you could ever possibly imagine, looking deeply into her own awe struck emerald eyes.

"I . . . I think so," she stuttered trying to get her voice to work despite all the obstacles.

She had to remind herself to breath, that was how bad it was. She could barely remember what words were let alone form a sentence to reply. Heck, her whole body was mush right now and the fact of the matter was she actually didn't care.

"Good," he said his tone changing entirely as he put up a wall that hid the true emotions he felt at the moment.

_'God, she's beautiful,'_ he thought to himself for a moment but quickly shook his head forcing the thoughts out of his head. "What are you doing here?" he said instead as he forced an arrogant tone to his voice. He added an extra question as he noticed a lump of fur on her lap, "and what the hell is that?"

"That's my Pokemon," she said in a haughty tone that almost matched his. "I'm a Pokemon trainer."

"What kind of trainer lets their Pokemon get into that kind of state?" he asked as his eyes carefully study the creature in her arms taking strained breaths.

In any normal situation Sakura would have replied calmly and answered his question properly – she might have even bothered asking for help if it was anyone else - but there was just something about his tone and that overconfident demeanour that really got to her.

"What kind of trainer am I?" she asked angrily struck by the irony of it all as everything that had happened thus far came back to her. She stood up and carefully placed Kero to one side in an effort to be more intimidating. "Well you're certainly one to talk. I mean, who do you think you are getting your Pokemon to attack innocent bystanders and throwing Pokeballs at people's heads?"

He just smiled smugly completely unaffected by her words, like water off a ducks back. "I'm Syaoran Li," he replied raising a haughty eyebrow in her direction. "Who the hell are you?"

"Like that's supposed to impress me or something?" she asked mimicking his haughty tone and expression. _'I'm Syaoran Li,'_ she whined pompously in her head. _'Jackass.'_

"I suppose it wouldn't mean anything to someone like you," he replied smugly with a brazen smile. "I mean," he continued waving the thought aside offhandishly, "you are after all just some inexperienced little wanna-be Pokemon Trainer. And a girl one at that."

"You misogynistic, Neanderthalic, sexist prick!" she yelled passionately. "I can't believe that anybody could possibly be so completely ignorant! You act like feminism didn't even happen!"

"Takes one to know one," he muttered childlishly under his breath so she wouldn't hear before remarking more maturely. "Well I can't believe that anybody could be so completely without manners," he uttered pretentiously. "Were you raised by a bunch of primeape? All I did was try to help you and your poor, sweet, _dying_ Pokemon and you just blew up in my face!"

"Only because you acted like some know-it-all pretentious jackass. Maybe if your manners had been a little more apparent I would have returned the favour," she replied in fake sweetness before adding snidely, "you nitwitted asswipe."

"That's very mature of you, little _girl_. But then I wouldn't expect anything less of a mere _child_."

"Like you can talk Mr. I-Have-Carrot-Up-My-Ass-And-I'm-Not-Afraid-To-Use-It," she said pointedly putting her hands on her waist and turning her nose up at him. "Remind me again who threw the Pokeball at my head"

"Who could blame me?" he replied cockily, his grin never leaving his face. "You were making so much noise back there that I thought I was about to catch some over-sized snorlax."

"Pfft!" she exclaimed angrily – BTW 'Pfft' is very much a real word. "Well, just so you know, you throw like a girl!"

"And you would know what a girl throws like seeing as you are such a little girly-girl, pink wearing, Barbie doll, FREAK!"

"Whatever. At least I'm not some pukey green wearing, action man wanna-be, G. I. Dork brain!" she yelled. "You know what, you have got to be the most pretentious, self-absorbed, arrogant, conceited, egotistical jackass I have ever met. Why can't you just leave me alone and go hit on somebody else? You . . . you mindless jackass! You, mankee butt licker . . . you marreep shagging hillbilly . . . you worthless ugly, stupid meowth flea . . ."

Syaoran shook his head and rolled his eyes as she paced animatedly back and forth coming up with random names. He decided to ignore her and simply hold his tongue while she was caught up in her little tirade and began to riffle through his backpack hanging on the bikes handlebars.

He smirked momentarily to himself as he found the item he was looking for and then bent down to take a better look a Kero who had been forgotten in the heated battle of insults. It was obvious the Pokemon was in need of some professional help even if its trainer was a little too dense to realise that, though she too was suffering from some sore looking scratches and bruises.

" . . . you shit eating, flea picking rodent . . . I mean, how dare you even suggest . .. you pigheaded, selfish, inconsiderate jerkoff . . ." Sakura rambled until she suddenly noticed Syaoran crouched down beside Kero. "And what the hell are you doing to my Pokemon you animal abusing coward?!"

"If you must know," he replied patronisingly, "I was trying to give your Pokemon a healing potion. At least that was until some self-centred, loud-mouthed bitch interrupted me."

"Oh," Sakura replied quietly suddenly feeling very embarrassed and very small. She bit her lip and looked away from Syaoran's piercing gaze as her cheeks flushed bright red.

"Now if you're done with calling me just about every name under the sun, do you mind letting me help?" he asked his eyes beautiful and imploring.

"No . . . I mean, ye . . ." she began feeling completely tongue tied. Somewhere between his pink comment and her bit about him being a pansey elf queen who liked to nance about the purple teletubbie fountain, he had reverted back to the boy she had seen when she had first opened her eyes and she was back to being some giggling little school girl around him.

"Go ahead," Sakura finally said biting her lip as she fidgeted with her Pokébelt.

Syaoran nodded curtly and began to feed Kero a small bottle of florecent blue liquid meant for healing the tiny golden Pokemon.

"Now we better get him to a Pokemon Centre before things get worse," Syaoran told her.

Sakura just nodded and watched Syaoran gently pick up Kero and place him gently in a basket located at the back of the bike. She followed as Syaoran began to lead them out of the forest, but not a word passed her lips despite the many things she longed to say.

Every now and then, the Magnemite that hovered along side him would buzz or hum or repeat its name in different patterns as it talked to Syaoran in their own secret language. Sometimes he would say some random phrase or word aloud almost as if they had been carrying on the main body of the conversation telepathically and she was only getting bits and pieces of it.

He would sigh, too. The simple matter was, that Magnemite was asking him questions that he didn't know the answers to; questions that he didn't want to know the answers to and all of them about the girl beside him.

"I don't know," he muttered exasperatedly as he took a subtle glance at Sakura from the corner of his eye. Magnemite noticed that too and was quick to question him on it, another question he couldn't have answered even if his life had depended on it.

Sakura took in a deep breath as they exited the forest. She took a few quick steps so that she was in front of him and stopped in his path so that she could have his full, undivided attention.

She had been silent the whole journey just trying to build up the courage for what she was about to do. She had been practicing the words in her head, just trying to make sense of them so that she wouldn't seem like some kind of gaping dork when she got round to saying them.

She wasn't even sure if she would be capable of speaking with his amber eyes looking at her like they were. She felt like she was going to freeze up and he'd never know how she felt.

"S-sy-Syaoran," she stuttered out feeling a little more brave afterwards now that she knew she could say his name. "I . . . I just wanted to say . . ."

Sakura trailed off. Something in the distance - beyond Syaoran and his honey brown dishevelled locks, his awe striking amber eyes and cocky smirk – had caught her attention.

She acted fast.

Without even bothering to finish her sentence, she grabbed the bike and jumped on riding away as fast as she could.

"SyaoranImsosorry,pleaseforgiveme," she yelled in one breath over her shoulder as she zoomed down towards the town she could see in the distance.

Magnemite muttered something condescending and Syaoran replied, "I know Magnum, but what else can I do? There's just something . . ."

Magnemite made a noise to show it's exasperation and waited for Syaoran's reply, but he was too busy watching her ride into the distance. And to think he didn't even know her name!

But there was definitely something, he wasn't sure what, but he felt this need that he didn't understand, and when the flock a of Spearrow swept past overhead he felt more scared for her than he had ever felt about anything in his entire life.

~ to be continued ~

On second thoughts I may just take ownership of those two lines there "Mr. I-Have-A-Carrot-Stuck-Up-My-Ass-And-I'm-Not-Afraid-To-Use-It" and "Why don't you just leave me alone and go hit on someone else?" which I think is an excellent way to put a stop to any argument. Actually that entier fight scene is gold. And I guess I also better apologise for giving those two such filthy dialogue. Also I suspect that Sakura may be a tad OOC but she is in a very stressful situation and I've always been a fan of those fics where Syaoran brings out the worst in Sakura in the start and then she breaks down his harsh exterior and the two are able to form an everlasting bond in spite of their differences in the beginning. Nobody writes them like that anymore.

Anyways, I won't say it . . . I'm just going to finish here and if you want to know what I was going to say head back to the top. If you like this, please read my other fics as they too are feeling neglected . . .

P.S. The chapter title is Tolken if anybody was wondering and I'm sure you're not but I just thought I should mention it . . .


	2. My Hero

I just had the uncomfortable experience of reading my first CCS fic today - it was terrible. I like to think that I have gotten better since then, like there is this scene between Kero and Sakura's dad (who was Aiden cos it was all English names except for Eriol and Syaoran because I thought Eli and Shaoron were awful names) and it was like they were a couple of four year olds. I twas completely egocentric - like you know how when you have two four year olds talking and one is like "My dad is a police officer" and the other responds "I like icecream" which is met with an "He has a dog called Alfie" only to have the other respond "My favourite is goody-goody gum drops" - it was sort of like that but they just happened to be talking about the same thing so it almost looked like they were actually having a conversation. Just thought I'd mention that. Right-o. Thanks for reviews and don't forget to attend to the other half . . . .net/s/2240818/1/More_Than_You_Think_You_Are which for some reason or other is 1 chapter ahead even though I was writing the two chapters simultaneously and finished this one first.

Disclaimer – I don't own it. But if I did just imagine how things would be . . .

More Than You Think You Are – My Hero

Sakura burst through the doors of the Pokemon centre in a desperate panic. Things were way worse than they should have been and Kero needed urgent medical attention.

She didn't want to even think about where the two of them would be if it hadn't been for Syaoran and his potion. They'd probably still be fumbling around the forest with Kero half dead and her in some sort of daze just waiting for someone to come save them.

A faint blush began to form on her cheeks as her thoughts drifted to the handsome trainer she had encountered. His amber eyes, his proud and devilish smile, his warm hands . . .

Sakura quickly shook her head and forced her thoughts back to Kero. She had to remind herself of where they where and why they were there. There were far more important things to think about right now, it was not the time to be thinking about Syaoran Li.

"Can I help you?" Nurse Joy offered perkily as she noticed Sakura looking dazed and confused.

"It's my Pokemon," Sakura replied quickly. "I don't know what's wrong with him. There were these Spearrow and we were running and I didn't know where to go. And then there was a boy, and he gave us a potion but it wasn't enough. They just wouldn't stop and they were pecking at him and hurting him and he tried to save me. I don't deserve it, I'm an awful trainer. He should have someone smarter and I don't know, just . . ."

Nurse Joy cut her off and wrapped her arms around the young, distraught girl. "Calm down, you're no help to us like this." Nurse Joy waited patiently while Sakura took some deep breaths and tried to do as she was told. "Now, we're going to take him through to the ER and see what we can do. I want you to stay here and try and get some sleep. Chancey will come check on you in a few minutes but there's nothing more you can do right now but just pray for the best."

Sakura nodded dumbly as she walked almost unconsciously to the chairs in the waiting room and sat down. For a long time she just sat there staring blindly at the clock on the wall while she tried to put everything that was going on in her head into order.

She could hardly even make sense of everything that happened. One minute they were rushing down towards the town just trying to get away from the Spearrow and the next Kero had used the very last of his energy to transport them here.

It didn't make sense. She wondered why he would even bother? Kero hated her. Nobody would blame him if he just left her to become Spearrow food: she hadd been such an awful trainer, she didn't deserve to be saved.

It was her fault that things had gotten so awful in the first place. If she hadn't been such a useless trainer none of this would have happened. She'd thrown the rock, she was the one who had taunted the Spearrow, but now Kero was the one who had to pay for her stupidity and uselessness.

"I'm so sorry Kero," she muttered to herself somewhere between sleep and awake. "It's all my fault."

Slowly her eyes began to fall shut and she slipped into unconscious, a restless sleep beyond her control.

~*©*~

"It's all my fault," she cried into the darkness.

"Li! Kero! Tomoyo! Meiling!"

Sakura closed her eyes hoping that when she opened them again everything would be back to the way it used to be, but nothing changed.

It was so dark, so cold, so empty. She was alone. She needed somebody, anybody. She didn't want to be alone.

"Li!" she tried again. Tears streamed down her face as the darkness seemed to cave in on her. "Li, please, I need you. I don't want to be alone anymore."

_"You're not alone,"_ a voice whispered in her ear. It was so close but at the same time she knew there was nobody there. _"You are never alone."_

The darkness began to fade and was replaced by a pure white that enveloped her in a feeling of warmth and protection. She felt loved and as though nothing could ever happen to her as long as she was there.

_"I am with you now as I was then,"_ the feminine voice spoke softly. _"You will never be alone; I am always in your heart."_

_"I'll never leave your side, Sakura,"_ another voice, a male voice added. _"You will never shed a single tear without me there to dry them. I'll always love you, Sakura, and even if I have to let that go right now, I will never forget you."_

"Please! Don't go! You can't leave me!" she cried as the darkness began to fade in on her once more and the voice began to fade into the recesses of her mind. Consciousness was returning fast, and soon it would be nothing more than a distant memory once more.

She woke up slowly, as a heated argument began to phase into her thoughts.

"I just want to know if she's here . . ." the voice yelled disdainfully. "Is that so much to ask?"

Chancey seemed to reply but the protester obviously was not impressed.

"Of course I don't know her name, I only just met her," he cried adamantly. He paused, taking a deep breath as he realized that yelling wasn't getting him anywhere. "Look," he sighed, pleading with Chancey, "she told me she was coming here, could you just check if there's anyone here that matches her description? I really need to talk to her. It's important."

"Syaoran?" Sakura asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes.

Syaoran turned very slowly at the sound of his name, not quite sure whether to believe he had actually found her, choking on the few choice words he had spared the unbearably pleasant Chancey before him.

But there she was, staring right back at him, looking no worse for wear than when he'd last seen her – only a few more scratches since she'd left him but other than that she seemed to be perfectly fine. Safe. Unharmed. Whatever you liked to call it, she was ok.

Certainly nothing that warranted the hour he'd just endured. He had been going out of his mind for the last hour for fear that she might be dead or something.

_'To think I had actually been worried about her,'_ he thought sourly to himself as he tried to bury the feeling of relief at seeing her in one piece. He'd seen his bike lying at the bottom of that ridge – irreparable and almost unrecognizable – and he'd jumped to the worst conclusions.

He was so mad at himself. How could he have been so rash? So stupid? What had he been thinking?!

The moment he saw the bike lying there, just a million thoughts rushed into his head weighing down on him like the figurative tonne of bricks that came to mind.

He had been scared, frightened beyond reason – for her.

Afraid that she was gone without him ever knowing her name. Scared that something had happened to her and he'd never see her again. Frightened that he'd lost her and that this loss was one he'd never be able to replace.

Afraid that this was some how his fault; that he was to blame. That some infuriating little girl had fallen into his life and now she was gone and there was nobody to blame but himself.

And the scariest part of all was that Syaoran had never been afraid of anything in his life. Not for himself; not for anyone. And yet some girl had managed to make him feel fear in a way that he had never thought was possible.

The fear that she was in danger had spread through his entire body in an instant, putting his body into motion before his brain could even begin to ask questions about what this all meant. Questions that remained frighteningly unanswered.

He had searched the entire city for her; Hostels, Churches, Hospitals even the occasional department store before it occurred him that he had known where to find her all along. And now here she was, right where he'd told her to be, completely unaware of the entire ordeal he'd gone through to find her, calling his name from across the room as if his presence was some kind of happy coincidence.

_'Stupid girl,'_ he thought to himself angrily, _'can't even go missing right.'_

How had he let himself get so worked up over an innocuous little girl? How dare he let his emotions get the best of him like that.

His eyes hardened, shrouding all his other feelings with pride and resentment. How dare she, the source of all this, work him up into such a terrible frenzy of panic and guilt worrying about her safety and just sit there smiling looking like nothing had even happened. Not to mention the bloody mess she'd made of his bike.

He smiled tightly at Chancey who continued to be cringingly helpful. "Nevermind," he told the nurse Pokemon politely, his words not betraying a single thought. "I've found her."

He strode quickly across the Pokemon Centre, his mind tossing around all the things he wanted to say to her. In just a few steps he was standing right in front of her, his words poised for pronouncement.

"What are you doing here Li?" Sakura asked softly, her voice heavy with anxious hope.

_'What am I doing here?'_ Syaoran asked angrily to himself. All other feeling washed away, replaced by anger and pride in one foul swoop. No more relief or happiness at seeing her alive and safe. Nothing else.

"Looking for you of course," he muttered sternly as he paced the floor in front of her, gesturing wildly to emphasise his points. "I mean, what the hell did you think you were doing? You could have got yourself killed, in fact I'd wager that you almost did just by the looks of things.

"Did you really think I wouldn't follow you here?" he continued, spewing his thoughts out into the space between them like a stream of consciousness. "After what you did to my bike you're lucky I don't call in Officer Jenny. What were you thinking? I mean, what was really going through your thick skull? Stealing my bike and riding off into the distance followed by a very angry looking bunch of Spearrow. Do you have a death wish or something? You put your life and the life of your Pokemon in danger.

"Say something," he yelled at her, stopping and glowering at her in disgust. "Do you even care?"

"I . . ." she began, lost for words as Syaoran stared down on her with his piercing amber eyes. "I mean . . ." she began again, looking down at the floor so he wouldn't see the tears that pooled in her own eyes. "I-I thought I was doing the right thing . . . for Kero," she offered quietly, her voice thick with emotion.

"Pathetic," Syaoran muttered, not even taking a moment to recognise the pain in her words. "Don't you have anything else to say for yourself? You put your Pokemon in danger and all you have to say is that you thought you were doing the right thing? You can't just say you're really sorry and hope everything works out. This is the real world, little girl and . . ."

"No," Sakura said sternly, turning her face up from the ground so she could look him in the eye. For a moment Syaoran was taken aback by the look of determination on her face and the tears that streamed down her cheeks. It was the very picture of strength in ways that he just couldn't understand.

"You don't get to yell at me," she told him as more tears filled her eyes. "Not now. Not while the only friend I've got out here is in that room," she cried, pointing to the emergency room where a foreboding lit sign warned that there was still more waiting to be endured. "Not when I have no idea whether Kero's going to live or die knowing it's all my fault. Not when I'm feeling like this.

"Yes I'm grateful for what you did Li, and yes I owe you for the bike," she told him, wiping her tears away with her hands. "But if you're just going to yell at me right now then I don't want to hear it"

More tears streamed down her face, and as she reached up to dry them Syaoran knelt down before her, taking her hands in his and letting them fall.

"How long has he been in there?" he began nervously, not quite sure what he was supposed to say or what he was supposed to do only that he had to comfort her.

"I don't know," she sighed holding back tears. "An hour, maybe two. It's all my fault. I'm, I'm so stupid."

"No you're not," Syaoran replied softly, wiping away her tears.

"Really?" Sakura asked sceptically. "Because that's not what you were saying just a minute ago."

"I- I . . . uh," he tried, somewhat taken aback by her words.

"It's ok," she replied, forcing a smile, "I won't hold it against you."

Syaoran sighed as he looked down at her hands, embarrassed by all the things he'd said and how inconsiderate he'd been. She didn't deserve what he'd said to her.

"You're hurt," he told her worriedly as he noticed a very large scratch up the side of her arm. She winced as he touched it ever so gently. It was probably worse than she gave it credit for but she didn't say anything more about it.

"I'll go get you a nurse. You need that seen to," he told her as he picked himself off the ground and starting heading towards the desk. Sakura reached out her uninjured hand to stop him, taking his hand in hers before he got away.

She shook her head slowly as he turned to face her.

"But you're hurt," he told her, his eyes clouding over with confusion.

"I know," she said with a shrug and a smile, "but not until I know Kero is safe."

He sighed as he took the seat next to Sakura, still holding her hand.

"I'm sorry," he told her sincerely as he stared at the incredibly interesting ground. "I'm not very good at this whole thing."

He looked up sheepishly, waiting for her reply.

"You're doing ok," Sakura told him honestly as she looked up slowly to meet his eyes.

Her eyes locked on his, and in that moment it was like there was no one else there and nothing else mattered. The two slowly inched closer and closer to one another until . . .

"Sakura Kinomoto?" a voice asked imploringly from somewhere in the room.

"Yes?" Sakura called jumping from her seat at the sound of her name and running across the room to where Nurse Joy was standing holding a very worrying looking chart. "Is it Kero? Is he all right?" she asked hopefully in quick succession silently pleading with the Nurse that the answer would be yes.

"Your Pokemon's fine," Nurse Joy told her cheerfully. "In fact, you can go see him right now if you like."

"Oh thank you," Sakura cried cheerily, a hop in her step as she followed Nurse Joy, before running back as a thought occurred to her.

"Li, I . . ." she began but he quickly cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"I'll be right here when you come back," he told her charmingly a smirk ever present on his face, "and you can tell me all about how grateful you are and beg for my forgiveness then. Right now you need to be with your Pokemon."

"Thank you Syaoran," she sighed, her eyes shimmering with gratitude, "for everything."

~ to be continued ~

Weird. Did not think I'd finish this one before I finished the Ash and Misty chapter. I guess it's just a matter of inspiration striking, and I did read a CCS fic today for like the first time in more than a year.

Anyway, I hope it's not too OOC. I was a little worried at first with the whole Sakura yelling at Syaoran thing being a little too much but Sakura isn't as passive as people make her out to be particularly when it comes to Syaoran. I mean that boy was asking for it!

So please review, let me know what you think, whether it's worth me continuing or whether I should just let the thing die an awful death like so many that have gone before it. Either way I have at least one more chapter so I guess you'll get it regardless, but the more interest you all show the sooner you'll get it, I mean if you want it . . .


	3. Awake

Yay, new chapter! More Syaoran+Sakura goodness! I've also posted the AAMRN half up simultaneously if you're interested (it's the Sword card with a few changes, and if you don't like Pokemon it still works if you just think Syaoran and Sakura in your head).

DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS. I don't own Pokemon, although nothing like this episode ever really happened in Pokemon so if aside from the characters I guess I do sort of own it. Not really sure, intellectual property always confused me.

More Than You Think You Are – Awake

"So?" Sakura asked, taking a seat on the swing next to him, and letting her legs dangle.

He didn't look up or speak. He just kept staring at the sun, as it slowly fell down below the trees. He looked as though he was concentrating very, very hard.

For a moment she thought that he hadn't heard her, but as she went to speak again, the corners of his mouth raised into a slight smile. She smiled back because he only ever smiled for her.

"I suppose it's impossible for you just to sit here silently," he suggested, his eyes still locked on the setting sun.

She shook her head as she swung herself back and forward on the swing. It made a sharp creaking noise and the chain jangled slightly. He put his hand out and stopped it so they were sitting in silence once again.

"Nee, Syao-kun, you're no fun!" she said childishly, pulling a face at him even though she knew he couldn't see it.

He turned slowly on his own swing to face her, his eyes clouded with worry and thought. "Sakura-san," he said slowly, his cheeks reddening as he said her name. "Sakura I . . . I . . ." he started, but as her eyes looked at him expectantly, the words froze in his throat. _'Syaoran, you coward,'_ he thought to himself. "I just remembered I left the iron on," he said quickly, jumping out of his swing and running off in the direction of his apartment. "Bye!"

Sakura sighed. "Goodnight Syaoran-kun."

Sakura woke slowly, savouring her sleep. Somewhere far away, she could hear somebody gently whispering her name, becoming louder and clearer as she drifted into consciousness.

"Sakura, Sakura," the voice whispered lovingly in her mind. "Wake up, Kinomoto!"

She slowly opened her eyes, only to be met by a pair of cross looking amber eyes staring back at her. "Hoe," she said quietly, causing said eyes to look even more cross and annoyed.

"Well Kinomoto," the voice/owner of the eyes asked with a very unsubtle hint of irritation, "are you going to get up already, or do you plan to just sleep through your entire Pokemon journey?"

"Go away Li," Sakura muttered, glaring back at Syaoran A.K.A the disturber of her sleep. "It's still early."

"Still early?!" Syaoran cried in disbelief. "It's almost NOON! Check out was THREE hours ago! The only reason we're still here is because Nurse Joy took pity on us let and you sleep, but at this point I think even her patience is wearing."

"NOON!" Sakura cried sitting up right. "Why didn't you wake me?!" she asked, jumping out of bed and flying out around the room in a frenzy trying to get her things together.

"What do you think I've been trying to do for the last hour and a half, sleeping beauty? I've been ready to leave since 8 o'clock," he added smugly.

"I never asked you to wait for me," she replied, hands on her hips, glaring back at him.

"What choice did I have?" he retorted. "You totalled my bike, although if I had known I was going to be waiting around this long I might have just let it go."

"Well excuse me Mr. 'I can survive on 5 hours sleep and still look this good'," Sakura replied unthinkingly with a sneer. Luckily Syaoran was more interested in the assault and her defensive tone than the compliment buried with in it. "Some of us still need our beauty sleep."

She was just asking for some witty retort with that one. Syaoran almost considered not saying anything at all – it was just too easy – but before he could begin, Sakura was pushing/shooing him out the door.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Syaoran asked, aggravated, firmly standing his ground and blocking the doorframe.

"Well I need to change my clothes," she explained, rolling her eyes at how stupid boys could be sometimes, "and I'd rather do it without an audience."

Syaoran just stared blankly at her until realisation hit. "Oh," he said quietly his eyes widening and his cheeks becoming very red as he realised that he was the aforementioned audience. "Oh . . . well . . . of course. I'll just be . . . I'll just be here," he finished, stepping out of the doorframe and into the hall.

"Much appreciated," she said pleasantly with a tight smile as she shut the door on him. "I'll be two minutes," she called through the closed door.

"Yeah right," Syaoran muttered to himself. He had sisters – four of them in fact – and he knew better than anyone exactly how long it took for a girl to get ready. He was quite severely outnumbered, and almost never allowed into the bathroom when they were in the house. It was (and please do mind the pun as it was not intentional) a relief to have his bathroom privileges reinstated.

But before Syaoran could even finish formulating these thoughts, the door swung open and Sakura appeared, fully packed and dressed, and ready to face the world.

"I think that's a new personal best," Sakura mused to herself, sidestepping Syaoran who watched her with awe. "Hurry up, Li," she said with a very sweet smile and imploring eyes. "It's almost noon and I've still got to collect Kero."

"You're telling me to hurry up?" Syaoran asked regaining his senses, as Sakura breezed past him. "I've been ready since 8 remember."

"Really Li," Sakura sighed exasperatedly, hiding her smile by keeping her back to him. "We don't have time for this."

She had resolved not to lose her temper with him for two very good reasons. The first was that whenever she did loose her temper with him, Syaoran got all cool and cocky and that just made her so angry she forgot what had even set her off to begin with. The second reason was that she noticed her under reacting seemed to have a similar effect on Syaoran – it threw him off balance and he no longer seemed to have the upper hand.

"Let's just call a spade a spade and be done with it, ok?" she added so pleasantly it almost made her choke on her own words.

This only infuriated him more.

"A spade is not a spade," he exploded, chasing after her as she coolly walked down the stairs towards Nurse Joy's desk. "At least not in this sense. And that didn't even make sense! In fact, this is in no way an analogous situation . . ."

"Is Kero ready?" Sakura asked Nurse Joy, ignoring Syaoran and is little tirade/tantrum.

"Of course," Nurse Joy replied with a perky smile. "I've just sent Chancey to get him." She then turned to Syaoran who scowled at Sakura from the corner of his eye. "And here are your Pokemon Mr. Li," she added, handing him two pokeballs. "Magnemite and Magneton are both fully charged."

"Thank you," Syaoran replied politely with an appreciative smile as he grabbed his two pokeballs off the counter. It didn't pay to be rude to a Joy even if he was in a foul mood to begin with – they talked to each other, so if you got one offside, you were in all of their bad books.

"I went to one of the shows once when I visited my cousin in Cerulean," Nurse Joy told him. "It was one of the most incredible things I ever saw. My favourite part was the bit just before the finale, with Magnemite and Magneton. That was you wasn't it?"

"I . . . uh . . ." Syaoran began awkwardly trying to changed the topic. He scowled inwardly – he had started his journey to get away from his sister's and their stupid shows. He had hoped that Celadon would be far enough, but obviously there would be no escaping them.

Sakura readied herself to ask for some elaboration, but before the even got the chance she was struck by a yellow and white ball of fluff and fur.

"Kero!" she cried gleefully as she held her Pokemon in her arms, completely forgetting and Syaoran's dark and mysterious past. "I'm so glad you're ok."

"Ker-ro," the ivory winged Pokemon replied. "Ker."

Syaoran scoffed, more to himself than to Sakura, as they left the Pokemon centre. "You look more like a little girl and her stuffed animal, than a Pokemon and trainer."

_'Stuffed animal!'_ Kero thought to himself. _'Stupid Chinese Gaki – why I oughta . . .'_

"Stuffed animal!" Sakura cried, letting go of Kero who she had been cradling in her arms in such a manner that Syaoran's comment was probably completely justified. "I think you've hurt Kero's feelings," Sakura told him in reply as Kero crossed his tiny little paws grumpily.

"I meant it in a good way," Syaoran offered with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Sure," Sakura replied knowingly. "Sooo," she drawled looking at Syaoran expectantly, "where to next?"

"I don't know," Syaoran told her in response. "It's your journey. Don't you have like a plan, or an itinerary, or something?"

"Uh . . . no," Sakura replied almost sarcastically as she eyed him strangely. "You?"

"Well I didn't really think that far ahead," Syaoran muttered in response, rolling his eyes at her. His only thought had been getting away from his sisters, what he would do after that was the last thing on his mind, and finding Sakura had certainly not been part of the plan. "What badges do you have?"

"Uh . . ."

"Never mind. What Pokémon do you have with you? That way we can know which gym to challenge."

"Uh . . ." she started biting her lip nervously, "I'm kinda new to this."

"How new?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"Like, I only started yesterday."

"Of course," Syaoran sighed looking to the heavens who all just seemed to shrug their shoulders ironically. "You mean to say that Kero is you're only Pokémon?" Syaoran asked to which she nodded innocently.

He shook his head. He couldn't believe what he had gotten himself into. "But he's not a beginner Pokémon," he questioned shaking his head again, "he's not even on the list. It takes a _very_ advanced trainer to handle a Kero," he continued oblivious to Sakura's glares as he tried to explain to her how bad a match had been made, "which I guess explains a few things. They're tempestuous, stubborn and . . . Arrgh!"

Syaoran cried out suddenly as Kero gave him a sudden shock, apparently sick of hearing Syaoran describe all his more undesirable qualities aloud. It was nothing Syaoran wasn't used to of course, given his choice of Pokémon, but a shock was a shock, and it did sting a little all the same.

"What'd you make him do that for?" Syaoran asked, scowling once more at Sakura.

"Me?" she asked innocently, gesturing to her self in apparent shock. "I didn't make him do anything. He's so tempestuous, and stubborn, and me just an amateur, wanna-be trainer – I have no control over him. Nothing really compared to the great Syaoran Li – fountain of knowledge and saviour of Pokémon and trainer a like," she said before adding pointedly. "You're like my own walking, talking, living, breathing Pokedex."

"I was just trying to be helpful," he muttered glaring at her and Kero.

She sighed, exasperated. "If you say I need to get more Pokémon then I'll get more Pokémon, but right now I'm starving so can we please save the rest of your lessons until after lunch," she suggested.

Syaoran sighed. He had to agree – he too was feeling a little peckish. Trying to wake Sakura really took a lot out of a person and he really hoped he wouldn't have to repeat the experience.

The two sat down for lunch in a park not too far from the Pokémon centre. Sakura was happy to find that her dad had packed away some extra sandwiches in another compartment of her bag, and that the Ratata from earlier had not been able to get to that one.

They sat in silence, eating their food and not making eye contact until Sakura finally felt brave enough to say something.

"I don't suppose you know where would be a good place to _find_ some Pokémon?"

* * *

Meanwhile . . . not too far away a pair of tricksters spied our trio.

"There they are," the girl whispered to her partner glancing at his profile for a moment. His hazel green eyes seemed darkened with concentration. "What do we do?"

"Nothing," the boy replied without looking in her direction. "Nothing but what we're supposed to do."

"But she's . . ." the girl began, her dark auburn eyes flashing with concern, but the boy cut her off snappily.

"Of course I know who she is Akizuki-san," he hissed at her, "but if we do anything else it might jeopardise things in our world. We just have to play along and play our part."

"What does that mean, then?" the girl – Akizuki – replied worriedly.

"It means we've found our next victims."

~ to be continued ~

O_o. I wonder whose hiding in the bushes? Well actually, I don't wonder because I already know, which is one of the perks of being the writer. I did try to throw a few hints in there, just so nobody was too suprised.

Please review and if you've got the time, why not have a read of More Than You Think You Are. Because the story there doesn't start until after Syaoran/Misty's arrival almost all of the main characters have already been introduce which will give you a fair idea of what roles the characters yet to be introduced here will play.


	4. Prepare for Trouble

Well I think it's quite obvious where this chapters heading so I'll just be quiet and get on with the DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything worth mentioning . . . so I won't . . . except for this bit here about not mentioning it . . .More Than You Think You Are – Prepare For Trouble

"Aww, Syaoran, do we have to?" Sakura whined, as they stood side-by-side on the edge of the forest.

"Yes we do, Kinomoto," he replied sternly, taking glances at her from the corner of his eye. "It's the best place to find Pokémon and the fastest way to the Daidouji gym."

Sakura sighed aloud before suddenly turning to him with something off topic. "You know you can call me Sakura if you like," she said very seriously.

Syaoran gaped a little, trying to find words. She was making him feel flustered and off balance, and he didn't appreciate it at all. "I'm alright how we are," he replied awkwardly, feeling the strangest sense of déjà vu.

_'But I like it when you call me Sakura,'_ she thought to herself, puzzled as to why the thought had even occurred to her. "Fine, but I'm going to call you Syaoran," she replied instead, "unless you have any objections."

"Go ahead," he replied nonchalantly, certain this was not a battle he wanted to have. "Now are you going to get into that forest or do you want to try capturing another Spearrow?"

"I told you I was not trying to capture any Spearrow!" she cried, glaring at Syaoran through her bangs.

"Sure," he drawled, clearly not believing her in the slightest although she was technically telling the truth. "Just get in the damn forest, Kinomoto."

"Ohayo!" a woman's voice called, stopping them in their tracks. Sakura and Syaoran slowly turned around to find a boy and a girl in their late teens staring at them with bemused looks. "You two must be sweethearts," the girl continued looking at them with a soft, knowing smile. "I'm Natsumi and this is my husband Kai," she introduced indicating first to herself and then to the boy beside her.

"We're not . . ." Sakura and Syaoran replied at the same time, both blushing madly.

The boy beside her seemed to scowl at the statement almost as much as Syaoran, sending Natsumi a quick glare to which she responded with an innocent smile.

"Did we hear you say you were looking for Pokémon?" Kai asked, changing topic with a certain sense of urgency. His voice sounded hopeful.

"Yes," Sakura replied excitedly, taking an instant liking to the pair. "Have you seen some?"

"Well . . . no," he replied shoving his hands into his faded trousers and staring at the ground. They were both dressed very roughly in clothes that seemed as though they were of another period. His jacket had leather patches in the sleeves, and Natsumi wore a long burgundy dress that was fraying around the hem.

"Not as such," he added when he saw Sakura's face fall slightly.

"The thing is," Natsumi started nervously, looking to Kai for a moment as if asking his permission before she continued, "my husband and I have run away. Our families were so opposed to us being together, it was the only option we had. And so here we are."

Kai continued, checking Sakura's response was that desired as he pulled a pokeball out of his jacket pocket and released a large black feline creature. He had long pointed ears, and a long slender tail that whipped back and forth. He looked as though he was in very deep thought.

"The only thing we have with us is Spinnel Sun . . ."

"Suppi," Natsumi interjected, which made both Kai and the Pokémon visibly cringe.

"Suppi," he continued with a slightly exasperated sigh, giving his wife a pointed look from the corner of his eye "was my father's Pokémon. His most prized Pokémon." He gave them both a meaningful look and held back a smile as he saw Sakura's eyes widen and glisten with sadness. Syaoran's expression had not changed from the glare that appeared when Natsumi first suggested him and Sakura we're a couple.

"We have nothing else in this world," Kai continued, "but we would be willing to sell him to you for a reasonable price."

"Oh I don't know," Sakura said looking at Suppi who looked back at her almost pleadingly. "He's so beautiful. I doubt I have . . . I haven't got that much money . . ." she explained.

"Or we could trade?" Natsumi suggested innocently.

"What?!" Syaoran asked, suddenly interjecting and no longer willing to just observe. "Even if Spinnel is an evolved form, Kero is a much more valuable Pokémon and you both know it as well as I do. C'mon Sakura," he said, not even noticing his own lapse, "these two are just a couple of swindlers."

"There's more to him than meets the eye," Natsumi said lowly, her voice hypnotic, stopping Sakura in her tracks. "I'm sure you're both curious as to why he was so valuable to his previous owner?"

"Why?" Sakura asked, her curiosity peaked. Syaoran just scoffed; he was prepared to be unimpressed by whatever party trick they paraded out.

"Go on Suppi," she commanded. "Speak."

Suppi scoffed angrily. "Oh sure, you just expect me to come up with something on command like that," he said, his voice deep and regal as he tried to snap his fingers. "Just putting me on the spot like that. If you would give me a little more warning, next time I could come up with something really deep and meaningful to say like 'I think therefore I am' or 'Le coeur a sa raisons que la raison ne connait point' or '42'. Instead it is all rather uninspiring."

Both Sakura and Syaoran stared at Suppi in shock. "He speaks," Sakura said reverently.

"So, what do you say?" Kai said, ruining the moment. He looked between Sakura and Suppi, before briefly glancing at Natsumi who shared a knowing glance with him.

"Oh no I couldn't," Sakura replied quickly, standing up straight and looking determined. "Kero is my friend and I just couldn't trade him like that."

A slight smile graced Syaoran's face as he looked at her. She was incredibly determined and he respected her for making that decision. He knew it would have been a tough one to make, but she had made the right choice and that was what mattered.

Kai glowered and glanced once more at Natsumi. "Well," he said, shaking his head. "We really didn't want to do this, but you've left us with no choice. Give us your Pokémon," he said, his voice losing it's kindness as he thrust out his hand. "You too, gaki," he added, now glaring openly at Syaoran.

"What?" Sakura cried in shock. "No!"

"I told you they were swindlers," Syaoran said, glaring back. He now felt completely justified for his immediate suspiciousness and dislike of Kai in particular. There was just something familiar about him and he could feel his dislike matched by Kai.

"I guess we'll just have to do this the hard way," Natsumi said, her voice still sweet but her eyes hard thus defeating any kindness intoned by her voice.

The two both ripped of their clothes, costumes apparently, to reveal matching teal outfits with the letters TR emblazoned across their chests in black with a white border.

"Prepare for trouble," Natsumi began, striking a pose.

"And make it double," Touya continued, striking a pose to match.

"To protect the world from _devastation_."

"To unite _all_ people's within our nation."

"To extend the reach of truth and _love_."

"To denounce the _evils_ of _these_ stars above."

"Nakuru."

"Touya."

_'**Must I?**'_ Suppi asked in their minds as they made their way to the finale of their piece.

_'**Yes**,'_ they both replied, adamant that if they had to make fools of themselves, then so would he.

"Team rocket blast off at the speed of light," Nakuru finished, her dark auburn eyes flashing menacingly.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight," Touya added, his hazel green eyes still glaring at Syaoran.

"Suppi, that's right," Suppi finished almost sardonically. "Now hand over your Pokémon, unless of course you want things to become a little more difficult."

"Wait, I thought you said your names were Kai and Natsumi?" Sakura asked with her eyes clouded with confusion.

The trio fell to the floor in exasperation, sweat drops evident.

Syaoran sighed. "They were just pretending to be Kai and Natsumi in order to get you to give them Kero," Syaoran explained slowly. "Once you were far enough away Suppi would just teleport himself back to them. That's why they use a psychic Pokémon as the bait."

"Ohhhh," Sakura said, understanding dawning on her. "So does that mean that they're not married?" she asked inquisitively.

Syaoran took a deep breath and counted to three slowly in his head. This girl was clearly too naïve for her own good. "No, I doubt it," he replied not seeing the particular relevance.

She shrugged. "Too bad," she said far too chirpily for someone who was essentially being mugged at that moment. "They make such a KAWAII couple, don't you think?"

He sighed again.

"Do you mind?" Suppi asked dryly. "It would really suit all of us to get this business over and done with as quickly as possible."

"Right," Touya agreed. "Koffing! Go!"

"Magnum! Go!" Syaoran called back.

"Teddiursa! Go!" Nakuru called.

"Oh my god, it's so cuuuttteee!" Sakura cried.

"Kinomoto," Syaoran growled lowly, "focus."

"Right. Kero-chan! Go!"

They all called for their attacks.

"Teddiursa! Swift attack!"

"Koffing poison gas!"

"Magnum! Thunderbolt!"

"Kero! Gust!"

Without even knowing it Sakura and Syaoran worked together perfectly. Kero's wind blew away the poison gas, which had obscured the battlefield, allowing Magnum to see his target and thus aim his attack at Teddiursa who was about to attack Kero who hung close to the ground.

"Tackle!" they both called at the same time. Kero lowered himself to the ground and raced himself at the unsuspecting Teddiursa, while Magnum aimed himself at Koffing who hovered blissfully ignorant in the air. The attacks hit, and all that was need was one last strike.

Sakura and Syaoran looked at one another and nodded. One last call was all it would take.

"Kero/Magnum!" they called in unison. "Thunderbolt!"

The two attacks collided blasting Team Rocket and their Pokémon far away from Sakura and Syaoran. And with that it was over, their first encounter with Team Rocket.

"I guess we make a pretty good team," Sakura said shyly, looking at Syaoran for confirmation.

Syaoran shrugged as he returned Magnum to his pokeball.

"And I meant what I said before about it being all right if you wanted to call me Sakura," she added, even more shyly.

He glowered at her from under his chestnut bangs. "I don't want to call you Sakura," he sighed, looking unimpressed. He held back the urge to apology as soon as he said it – he realized that it had come out a bit harder than he had intended it to, but luckily Sakura appeared unfazed.

"You called me Sakura before," she replied not looking up from where she was attending to Kero. For some reason she couldn't fathom, she blushed as she said it, but Syaoran couldn't tell from where he stood.

"Let's call it a momentary lapse, shall we," he muttered in response.

"Well I'm just saying if you have another momentary lapse, it's ok," she replied chirpily as they gathered their things together and once more started making their way to the edge of the forest. Kero sat on her shoulder, happily resting there instead of flying.

"Sakura, you are infuriating," he sighed honestly, walking slightly ahead of her.

"See?" she offered. "It wasn't so bad."

"Kinomoto," he whined exasperatedly, a warning tone in his voice.

"Fine, have it your way," she said, catching up to him a little. "But I will wear you down one of these days. That's a promise."

~ to be continued ~

Awww. Yay! Another one out of the way. Also, the picture in my avatar is Nakuru in her Rocket attire (I always hated the rocket uniform, so I made a few changes, and I didn't feel like going on for a page and a half explaining it). Glad I can finally clear that up - I suspect that avatar is responsible for a very nasty flame I got to one of my other Pokemon fanfics about self insertion when it's actually the least deserving of being accused of self-insertion of all my fanfics (it even starts with the words "My name is Ash Ketchum . . ." which is what makes me think they've mistaken that pic of Nakuru for some kind of personal Rocket alter ego.

Please review - the next chapter has the absolute best dream sequence ever. In fact it is once of the cutest and fluffiest and sweetest things I've ever written and the more reviews I get the sooner I will put that piece of fluff up for your enjoyment (plus there's a chapter that follows if you're into the whole action thingee). Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, and everyone who has added this to their favourites or alerts. I feel so loved.


	5. The Very Hungry Caterpie

Oh Yay! Yay! Yay! Here it is. The very beautiful, wonderful piece of fluff I've been talking up for the last few chapter. Every time I read it I can't help but smile at the cuteness.

Oh dear, I just had a terrible thought. What if I've over hyped this and it doesn't live up to your expectations of cuteness? I really hope that it's still as cute as I think it is. Anyway, it's too late now. It's going up and love it or hate it, I still think it's gorgeous. I hope somebody picks this scene up as a one-shot and puts it up - anyone who wants to please do so, although I do expect a mention somewhere in the chapter.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS. I don't own Pokemon. I will claim ownership over this first scene, but like I said I would love for someone to turn it into a one-shot.

More Than You Think You Are – The Very Hungry Caterpei

"Aishiteru, Syao-kun," she said quietly refusing to meet his eye.

"Ashiteru," Syaoran repeated back, his eyes glued to his work sheet.

"No, Syao-kun," Sakura told him, giggling lightly. "Not A-shit-er-roo. It's I-Sh-Tar-Ooh," she said pronouncing each syllable.

"Ishataro," he said, making a second attempt.

"Closer," she said helpfully, repeating the word once again.

"Aishiteru," he said again, finally getting it right.

"Good," she said, happy with her student.

"And Aishiteru means 'I love you'," he said looking at his book. "So you'd say 'Aishiteru Okaa-san' and 'Aishiteru Obaa-san'."

"Nooo," Sakura said slowly making a face. She kindly held back her laughter as Syaoran pouted back at her. Japanese was definitely not his strongest subject. He was lucky that Sakura was so good with languages and was happy to explain things to him in Cantonese.

"It doesn't mean 'I love you' like that," she explained shyly. "It's more romantic."

"Nee, stop being so girly," he said grouchily, "and just explain it to me plainly."

"You wouldn't say it to your family," she started, "because it doesn't mean 'I love you' like that. It means . . . oh how do I explain it . . . it's more like saying 'I'm in love with you'."

"Oohhh," he said quietly, realising that he had made a rather incestuous mistake. "Oh."

The two sat quietly, not taking their eyes off of their work before them. They probably could have sat like that for hours until Syaoran finally found the courage to speak.

"Aishiteru, Sakura-chan," he said quietly, refusing to meet her eye.

"Aishiteru, Syaoran-kun."

* * *

_'No,'_ Sakura thought to herself as she woke slowly. _'No aishiteru. And definitely no 'Aishiteru, Syaoran-kun.'_

"Glad to see you're finally awake," the boy in question said, looking up from the fire where he was heating a can of stew. Kero too was already awake, sitting by the fire chomping away at some pokechow. Syaoran could be surprisingly caring when he wanted to, provided it wasn't her he had to be caring towards.

Sakura just made a face at him as she rolled up her sleeping bag and the rest of her things and tied it tightly in into a ball.

He silently took the pot off the heat and poured the contents into two bowls. He handed one to Sakura, and kept the other to himself.

"It's hot," he warned almost absentmindedly as Sakura brought the spoon to her mouth.

"Domo Syaoran," she said quietly as she blew on her spoon. They sat there quietly not speaking through breakfast. They didn't even say a word as the packed up the camp and Sakura washed the breakfast dishes.

In fact, not a word passed between them until a wild caterpie crossed their path about late morning.

"It's so cute," Sakura cried as she pointed her pokedex at the unsuspecting creature.

Syaoran seemed to almost snarl at it. "It's a bug," he said distastefully.

"A cute bug," Sakura replied pointedly, ignoring him for the most part as the Pokedex told her a few important facts about caterpie.

"And now I'm going to capture it," she said, looking at Syaoran smugly.

"What on earth do you want a bug for?" he asked, turning his nose up in disdain. "They are some of the most worthless types of Pokemon. They're disgusting. And stupid. And weak against practically everything."

"So?" Sakura shrugged. "Syaoran, I don't know what it is you have against bug Pokemon, but I don't really see how it's relevant to my catching this one in particular."

"Do what you want," Syaoran growled in response.

"Ok Kero," Sakura said calling on her partner, who nodded determinedly. He didn't really think much of bugs either, but he certainly wasn't going to admit to agreeing with Syaoran. "Let's start off with a gust attack," she suggested.

The bug, not really expecting an attack, was quickly thrown off-guard by the blast of wind, and thrown backwards.

"Cool," Sakura cried gleefully, sufficiently happy with her apparent success. "Pokeball go!" she called throwing the ball.

"You can't just . . ." Syaoran started trailing off exasperatedly. "You have to actually battle it first, you know?"

Sakura just shrugged. The ball sealed caterpie, glowing for a few moments before resting on peacefully on the ground.

Syaoran was awed. His mouth hung open as he struggled to find words to describe what had just happened. _'This girl has the dumbest luck I've ever seen,'_ he thought to himself, not sure that there was anything else that could possibly explain it.

"Anything else you wanted to say?" Sakura said happily, smiling smugly as she tossed the pokeball up and down in her hand.

"It just goes to show that I was right about bug Pokemon," he replied with a shrug. "I can't imagine what you want with a thing so weak it was defeated by just one attack."

"I'll show you Syaoran," Sakura said pointedly. "Next Pokemon we see, I'll prove to you that Caterpie isn't weak."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"There," Sakura said, pointing to a Pidgeotto digging for food in the next clearing. "There's a Pokemon."

"You're going to prove Catepie's worth against a Pidgeotto?" he asked her incredulously. "You do realise that Caterpie's are weak against flying Pokemon and that Pidgeotto is at least level 18. Caterpie is at most a 6. It's not exactly a fair fight, but maybe Pidgeotto will join you afterwards by way of thanks for providing him with a good meal."

Sakura just poked her tongue out at him and ignored everything he said. "Caterpie go!" she said calling on her newly caught Pokemon. She paused, trying to recall what Dexter had said about Caterpie's attacks. "Tackle!" she called, hoping it would do a bit of damage while Pidgeotto was off guard and still on the ground.

Caterpie waddled at full speed, hitting Pidgeotto dead centre. Pidgeotto merely looked annoyed and continued digging at the ground where it had just spotted a particularly juicy looking worm.

"Caterpie string!" she called, glaring at Syaoran from the corner of her eye. Well that certainly got Pidgeotto's attention. Caterpie was becoming an increasing nuisance, and there was only one way to deal with that.

Pidgeotto took to the air, gained speed and then sped down at Caterpie with a swift attack swooping at the bug. Caterpie was knocked backwards by the force, but then the most unexpected thing happened. Caterpie started to shoot a white string out of its mouth as it glowed intensely.

"It's evolving," Syaoran said in disbelief. "Only you could catch a Caterpie that was one attack away from evolving."

She ignored Syaoran, once again turning to Dexter for guidance. "Metapod," Dexter explained, "is Caterpie's evolved form. It only has one attack – harden. It does not eat. It cannot move. It is usually found hanging from trees in heavily wooded area's."

"Right," she said, determined not to give up. "Metapod," she called, "harden!"

Pidgeotto attacked again, crashing down into Metapod's hardened shell. Shaking it off, the bird took to the air and tried again, and again to obliterate teh bug that had so rudely interrupted it's meal. Pidgeotto tried a variety of attacks, and Sakura just kept on calling harden until eventually Pidgeotto simply tire itself out.

"Pokeball! Go!" Sakura called, sealing Pidgeotto in the ball. "Yay! Metapod!" she cheered at her crysalis.

"What do you think of that Syaoran?" Sakura said, raising an eyebrow in his direction. "Two Pokemon in one day, and one of them using nothing more than a stupid, weak, disgusting, smelly bug Pokemon."

"I think you have the dumbest luck of anyone I've ever met," Syaoran replied, finally voicing those thoughts aloud. "And if anyone else tried to describe this to me, I wouldn't believe them, but here you are, living proof that if brains will only get you part of the way, luck will most certainly get you there in the end."

"Aww Syaoran," she whined playfully, "it's ok. All you have to do is ask me nicely and I'll let you play with Metapod."

"No thank you," he said tightly. "Didn't you listen to Dexter. It doesn't eat. It doesn't sleep. It doesn't move. It doesn't do anything but just sit there waiting to evolve."

"It must do something," Sakura said, pressing at her pokedex for more information. "How else is it supposed to evolve?"

"I guess you just keep telling it to 'harden' until it does," he suggested with a shrug.

Metapod responded to Syaoran calling of it's one and only skill. And strangely enough, in that moment, Metapod started to glow. The outer shell cracked, and suddenly emerged a Pokemon with an indigo torso, and soft cornflower coloured wings. Metapod had evolved.

"It's even cuter than Caterpie," Sakura smiled. "Yay! Butterfree!" she cried, clapping her hands in excitement.

"Dumbest. Luck. Ever."

~ to be continued ~

I'm sure that I'm going to get in trouble with anybody who has any knowledge about Pokemon for this one, but I just thought it would be so funny for all this to happen. I do realise that it's probably impossible for a Metapod to defeat a Pidgeotto just from hardening itself lots of times. I'm also pretty sure that even where it had just defeated a higher level Pokemon by fluke, it would be pretty unlikely for that to be sufficient for it to increase three levels and evolve. I also realize that Caterpie had no time to recoup after its capture and that Sakura is a bad trainer for even trying to battle it.

I realize all this, but it just didn't work for me.

Also I'd like to mention how cute the dream from this one was. I thought it was the sweetest little thing ever. Please review, even if it's just to yell at me about everything that I just went through in the above paragraph.


End file.
